“Advancing the lease was ultimately important to us,” Donner said. “We didn’t buy the team as a relocation opportunity. We bought the team as a great opportunity in Greenville and wanted to make a statement. The best way to prove that is to commit to a multi-year lease with both the building and the community.”

Donner, who owned the American Hockey League's Rochester Americans in his hometown for 13 years and served as a marketing executive in the early days of the National Hockey League's Tampa Bay Lightning, will also take the reins as the Swamp Rabbits' general manager.

The move marks the latest ownership change in Greenville's on-again-off-again hockey history in the minor league ECHL.

To much fanfare in March 2015, the team — known then as the Road Warriors — and the publicly-owned arena announced a five-year lease.

In 2012, the team had been bought by Fred Festa — president and CEO of Maryland-based W.R. Grace and Co. and head of the sports ownership group Chestnut Street Sports LLC — when the ownership group that brought the team to Greenville from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 2010 backed out.

The ECHL, formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League, had told Festa he had to buy the team within four weeks to prevent the team's relocation. In 2015, Festa fielded offers from other cities before deciding to stay in Greenville. It would have been the second time Greenville lost a team, after its first run with the Greenville Grrrowl from 1998 to 2006 ended amid lagging attendance and sales. Instead, five months later, the team was renamed the Swamp Rabbits as part of a re-branding effort to build a stronger business model.

The team's games provide regular revenue for more than a dozen nights for the arena and its owner, the publicly run Greenville Arena District, during the winter season whenever acts aren't booked to perform.

ECHL Commissioner Brian McKenna said the league welcomed the purchase.

“We are excited by their plans for the market," McKenna said. "We would like to thank Fred for his considerable efforts on behalf of the Swamp Rabbits and the ECHL.”

Donner will be available to meet fans on the concourse at the team's home game this Saturday.